


The Girl With Chromium Hands

by Astr



Series: AU-gust 2020 [22]
Category: Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms, Hyperdrive (Web Series), The Girl With No Hands/The Maiden With No Hands (Fairy Tale)
Genre: Anger, Dark Fairy Tale Elements, F/M, Fairy Tale Retellings, Happy Ending, Implied Sexual Content, Mutilation, Non-Graphic Rape/Non-Con, Non-Graphic Violence, Romantic Soulmates, The Girl With No Hands, True Love, angsty parts, idk what else to tag here but let me know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:09:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26038453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Astr/pseuds/Astr
Summary: AU-gust Prompt 22: Futuristic AU--A Hyperdrive retelling of the old fairy tale "The Girl With No Hands" known by a myriad of other names. The characters are normally in a futuristic setting, but the tale itself is medieval.
Relationships: Stella (Hyperdrive)/Neil (Hyperdrive), Stella (Hyperdrive)/Sol Damarav
Series: AU-gust 2020 [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1853722





	The Girl With Chromium Hands

**Author's Note:**

> I'm actually pretty happy with this one, despite everything. Fairy tales have always been a Special Interest™ of mine, so infusing them with one of my favourite things? Perfect.

Once upon a future never to be ours, there will be a girl with dark brown hair and lovely brown eyes. She will be tall, and hearty, having known no luxury she has not worked hard for. She will manage her family's farm, which will have been around since near our time. This girl's name is Stella.

Stella will love a man who will never love her, and cause her immense suffering. Stella will later love a man who will cherish her as a Goddess, and will make her dreams come true. Between the two, Stella will find herself, her self worth, her strength, her faith, her soul. And when Stella is long gone, this will be her fairy tale, of The Girl With Chromium Hands.

+++

Once upon a time not too long ago, there was a girl named Stella. Stella was tall, and curvy, and the hardest worker in the land. She cared for a farm that had been in her family for a hundred, hundred years, passed from parent to child on and on, like a mighty tree.

Stella was beautiful, though sometimes she couldn't see it. Her hair was soft, the colour of the earth she tended so carefully, and her eyes matched, though in the sun, or when she wore the right colours, some could swear they were pure gold. She was curved and soft, despite her muscles, and her smile and loving demeanor meant that her beauty shone inside and out.

Stella's outer beauty did not go unnoticed, and many boys secretly wanted to woo her. But they were embarrassed by her humble status, and so pushed away before they could truly see her worth. She tried not to let it get to her, but it hurt, to think that no man thought her worthy of being a wife, a mother to his children. And oh, more than anything, she wanted children. 

Children to raise and snuggle and sing silly songs to, children to teach the ways of the earth from long before the digital awakening. Children to play with the horses and cows, to care for the creatures that chose to stay with them, even after Stella departed the world as all things must. Stella, more than anything, wanted children.

So she waited. And waited. Stella waited and dreamed little dreams as she tended her animals, as she went about the long lonely days. She dreamed of a husband, perhaps, who loved her. Who gave her babies in turn, and who helped her to raise them. Or she dreamed of a lover, who could not stay, but visited, who gave her many little ones, and brought them presents on holidays. Sometimes, when she was at her most lonely, she just dreamed of a man to come to her just once, to leave her with the little one she longed for.

One day, she was out in the city, the neon lights making her skin shine and her eyes fiery, and she met a mighty man. He had skin the colour of the sky before the Smog came and ruined the city's view of the heavens. He was a king, she learned, and a devil. He had dreams of ruling whole galaxies, with a mighty queen beside him. Stella knew she was not his queen, but agreed to stand beside him until his queen came. 

The King was haughty, and arrogant, his temper as fiery as the factories from ancient times, where fossils and prophets burned, melted, were reborn to create pavement and pillar and a planet of steel and iron. He did not love Stella, but he wanted to keep her all to himself. So he would bind her, hold her tight with word and whip. He held her hands in a vice-like grip, until her tears would loosen the bonds and she could slip away.

Thrice this happened. She would return to him when he called, under a spell, so her hands were not her own. He bound them tightly, until she cried herself to freedom. She learned a little more each time, of the world, of kings and devils and hearts. She learned that she could never have the children she dreamed of, with her hands so prone to returning back.

The fourth time she returned, he bound her hands in iron and steel. She was chained to a wall where she could never leave him, could never have her children, could never live her dreams. She was frightened, and felt lost. Then she felt angry, and pulled and pounded against the chains that kept her locked away. They would not budge. The king would come and have his way with her and leave to continue his quest for a queen to rule the cosmos. She wanted to hurt him, to make him feel all of the pain that she did. But she could not, her hands were locked away in shackles that she simply could not break.

She knew, when she calmed down and thought clearly, what she must do. She found a knife, sharp as her resolve, and cut off her hands. She was free. She bound her handless arms and washed them in her tears, and snuck away before the Devil King could return.

She ran and ran and ran, until she was home once more. Her animals did not care that she had no hands any longer, only that she was there and was theirs, and that she loved them still. She could not work as she used to, but she did what she could with what she had, and refused to give in to despair. She dared to dream, again, once she was settled back in to her rhythm, of children. 

Of a man who could love her even without her hands.

It went this way for a time, and Stella learned again to be happy. To be herself. To dream and love and live.

One day, on her farm, when the sky was clear and the sunlight made her skin shine like porcelain, she met an old friend. An Alien vet, a doctor for animals, who came to visit. Rumours had spread that the farmer woman had disappeared and come back missing her hands, and he went to see for himself.

This alien vet was a kind man, with a heart as big and vast as the stars from whence he came, and he dreamed of simple things. Where the Devil King had wanted power and glory, the alien vet wanted simply warmth and happiness. He dreamed of a wife, and children, to run around with, to teach the ways of his people, to dote on and snuggle and love to bits. From the first moment he met Stella, the alien dreamed of her.

He wanted to show Stella that he loved her, truly, and so he set about helping her. He cared for her animals, doing tasks that became too difficult for her without her hands, he made sure she ate, and drank, and every night he stayed by her bedside to protect her from the nightmares of her past. 

He was happy to help her, truly, but he feared that she was afraid of him, was afraid that he would find some way to bind her as the Devil King had. He had to find a way to prove that he would never take anything that was not willingly given. So after a time, when she was happy and healthy and starting to become more of herself than before, he set off on a journey to meet a wizard. This man worked magic with technology, could craft anything with gold and silver and neon and mercury.

The vet asked for a pair of hands, strong and sturdy, to lift any burden, and break any chain that tried to bind them. The wizard said he could do this, for a price. He wanted a story. The alien had not led an exciting life of adventure, but he had one tale in him: the story of his love, of his dreams. 

He told the wizard, as he worked, of Stella. Strong and beautiful. He told of his love for her, and his desire to be hers. To give her all she had ever dreamed of. He told of her love for animals, for her dreams of children, of keeping her farm safe even after her death. He told of her struggle, of her passion. He told the wizard of how her heart was so strong, she cut her own hands off rather than be chained. 

The wizard finished his work as the tale wound down, and he was satisfied. He gave the vet his finest creation: chromium hands for the woman strong enough to wield them, but kind enough to use them only for good. He sent the vet off, happier and with one more friend than he had before, and the promise to visit again soon.

Stella had missed the alien vet while he was gone. She had come to see him in her dreams. To imagine him as the husband and father that loved her and their little ones. He could make her happier than the Devil King ever could have. So when she saw him coming to the door, she decided to let him into her heart for good.

He gave her the chromium hands, and with them, his heart. She accepted, and gave him hers in return. They shared each other's dreams, and soon they were married. She had a husband to love her, and he had a wife to love him, and together, their love and their dreams created children. And more. And more.

Stella had her dreams. She had babes to love and snuggle and sing to, to teach the ways of the earth from long before the digital age. She had children to care for the animals that were her friends, that stayed because they loved her, and came to love the children as well. She had a husband that doted on her, but never tried to keep her bound to him with anything stronger than his own heart, who gave her hands stronger than her own had been before.

Stella and her husband departed, as all things must, together, their farm safe in the hands and hearts of their children, who lived happily ever after.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you, as always, for reading.


End file.
